Stonecutter_ 008

The Sons of Stonecutter Street On my first trip to Afghanistan in 1994 I stayed briefly with the Ba Deli family. They lived in the Shor Bazaar district on Stonecutter Street. It was situated near a number of deadly frontlines in Kabul's Old City. Most people had fled the area to escape the fighting and shelling. They were certainly one of the very few families to remain. They eloquently represented life in the middle of the savage civil war that was tearing Afghanistan apart. The family comprised a father and his four sons. When I met them one son had been killed fighting for Najibullah’s government against the mujahiddin and the mother had died of an illness. The second youngest boy, Farhuddin had lost a leg in a rocket attack the previous year.Over the years I have continued to meet and photograph the family whenever I could. In 1996 I met them briefly again, under a cloud of Taliban rule in their city. Although the bombs had stopped, life was uniformly bleak. Their two older brothers were killed fighting against the Taliban in the south-west of Kabul. Much against their fathers wishes, they joined the fight to feed the family. They were paid todays equivalent of $20 per month. They were killed within days of each other at the same position.